Panasonic Firefox-Powered Smart TVs Debuted in Europe

Panasonic is finally back from a long sleep. After they stopped selling those awesome Plasma TVs, they pretty much lost the market share. But finally they are back and are offering new products such as Firefox OS-powered 4K Smart TVs. Panasonic’s VIERA Smart TVs are the first ones to run Firefox OS on such platform and are being offered in Europe. Mozilla offers several unique advantages that other players like Google’s Android TV platform, Samsung’s Tizen and Roku doesn’t provide (yet), such as HTML5 web apps including Netflix and Hulu, along with the ability to share content from any device with a Firefox browser.

“We’re happy to partner with Panasonic to bring the first Smart TVs powered by Firefox OS to the world,” said Andreas Gal, Mozilla CTO. “With Firefox and Firefox OS powered devices, users can enjoy a custom and connected Web experience and take their favorite content (apps, videos, photos, websites) across devices without being locked into one proprietary ecosystem or brand.” he added.

Coming to the products, curved 4K Viera 65-inch CR850 and 55-inch CR730 with CX series 4K flat TVs. Panasonic is also bringing a new wide color phosphor “4K Studio Master” picture engine to the table. It will deliver professional color accuracy using 3D look-up tables (LUTs) used by film industry color professionals. The CR models will also feature HDR and 10-bit color capability for more detailed gradations between colors.